<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Unrequited by strei</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26939989">Unrequited</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/strei/pseuds/strei'>strei</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/M, and everyone gets a bad end, everyone gets a happy end, you're getting married to someone else</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:54:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,526</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26939989</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/strei/pseuds/strei</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Three universes where you find the love of your life. Three marriages blessed with love. Three broken hearts, each one envious of the other. </p>
<p>A series of three one shots where you marry Leona, Vil, or Malleus. There's heartbreak no matter who you choose.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Leona Kingscholar/Reader, Malleus Draconia/Reader, Vil Schoenheit/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>126</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’m here for the bride.”</p>
<p>You looked over your shoulder with a fond smile, taking in your friend’s ethereally beautiful visage.</p>
<p>“Was my artist not good enough?” you asked cheerfully.Teasingly. Like you didn’t know why he was here.</p>
<p>“No,” he responded and paused. You felt the air grow heavy with some tension and couldn’t quite hide your worried frown. He smiled softly at your little pout. “You’ll get wrinkles like that, potato.”</p>
<p>A soft sigh escaped those painted lips as he moved to stand behind you. “May I?”</p>
<p>“Oh wow, I’m having the most amazing model in the world as my artist? I’m so lucky!”</p>
<p>You didn’t need to try so hard for him. He wanted to tell you that it was okay today, of all days, to drop the cheerful facade. He’d dropped his, for the most part.</p>
<p>“It’s the least I could do for you,” he said softly. “I just wanted one last moment with you.”</p>
<p>“Are you going somewhere?”</p>
<p>“You know I’m not,” he sighed, hating how that smile of yours faltered. He’d known you hadn’t wanted to confront this today. He hadn’t either. But he wouldn’t ever again be able to have a moment like this. There would be no more flickering hope tomorrow. He prayed there wouldn’t be. He was tired of being burned alive by this heartache. After today you would be-</p>
<p>There was beauty.</p>
<p>And there was him.</p>
<p>And it was all he’d ever wanted.</p>
<p>Perfection and effort and beauty.</p>
<p>“May I?” he asked, his voice almost a whisper as he lifted reached down to grab a brush.</p>
<p>A soft sheen of tears filled your eyes and he put a hand on your cheek. With all the gentleness of a lover, he pressed his forehead to yours, hoping to convey every feeling, every dream, every desire he’d never put to word.</p>
<p>“No tears today, princess,” he crooned, pulling away and blinking back the moisture stinging his own eyes.</p>
<p>You gave a bubbly laugh. “Everyone cries during their wedding, Vil.”</p>
<p>“Your wedding hasn’t started yet, potato.”</p>
<p>It was the only reason he could find the strength to be here. In this moment you could be his. In this moment he could still pretend that all this was for him. That today was for him. That you were for him.</p>
<p>Like he was for you.</p>
<p>He wiped a stray tear away before bringing the brush to your cheek. With every stroke and caress, he took you in. Memorized the soft curves and dips of your face. Seared into his mind the flutter of your lashes and the pout of your lips. Wishing with every fiber of his being that instead of his brush he were caressing you with his fingers.</p>
<p>With his lips.</p>
<p>Vil drew in a ragged breath as he moved to twist and pin your hair in place, making sure to savor the feeling of those strands slipping through his fingers. He’d done your hair a million times before, but only now that he knew he would never again touch you like this, he caressed the fine length with a sense of reverence.</p>
<p>He’d dreamt a million times of burying his hands into the mass as you lay beside him. Of combing his fingers through it, just like this, as you kissed him and whispered promises of forever against his lips.Of seeing that lovely length spilled across his pillows in the gentle light of morning.</p>
<p>The tabloids had gone crazy when it was announced that you were to be wed to the second prince of the Afterglow Savannah. He’d made sure of it. Had used every measure at his disposal to write your affair as a love story worthy of becoming a fairy tale. The mortal maiden and the second prince who loved her despite her status. It was the thing of classics.</p>
<p>What King could deny a marriage so popular among his citizens?</p>
<p>What Queen could deny her beloved a grand and secure future?</p>
<p>If he sniffed, you pretended to ignore it. If a tear fell upon your shoulder, you let him wipe away.</p>
<p>If he wept, you closed your eyes and let him.</p>
<p>The two of you relished this moment without any shiny facade or played decorum.</p>
<p>He tried not to sob when he felt your hand rise to your shoulder and lay upon his. Oh how he wished he could stop loving you. How he wished that he could stop seeking the spotlight in hopes that maybe one day you would look at him the same way you looked at that cat.</p>
<p>“Vil,” his name, softly whispered on your lips, was a pain that threatened to rip him in half.</p>
<p>He wanted to beg you to never let it fall from your lips again.</p>
<p>He wanted it to be the only thing you ever breathed between kisses.</p>
<p>When he’d heard of your romance with that prince, he had brewed a potion sweet enough and strong enough to erase his feelings for your. To burn out that traitorous heart of his that refused to let you go.</p>
<p>He hadn’t been able to bring it to his lips.</p>
<p>For all of the bittersweet sting, Vil could not simply forget you. Could not turn his back on countless smiles and touches. To forget you would be like forgetting to breathe. Like giving up every color in the world.</p>
<p>He didn’t know how to stop loving you.</p>
<p>He didn’t want to stop loving you.</p>
<p>He loved you.</p>
<p>He loved you.</p>
<p>He loved you.</p>
<p>“Yes?” he asked, hoping you would ignore the way his voice cracked under the weight of all the words he fought to hold at bay.</p>
<p>“You look beautiful.”</p>
<p>A choked, gasping laugh filled the air. “Of course I do.”</p>
<p>But not as beautiful as you.</p>
<p>Not as beautiful as you half asleep and in your frumpy pajamas. Not as beautiful as you with your face covered in tears and snot bubbling as you ugly cried. not as beautiful as you laughing and smiling. Not as beautiful as you in the gentle light of evening. Not as beautiful as you in the twinkle of starshine.</p>
<p>You were the most beautiful of all.</p>
<p>You always had been.</p>
<p>To him.</p>
<p>Always, to him.</p>
<p>His heart ached with words. With secrets.</p>
<p>Vil inserted the last bobby pin in place and turned you to the mirror. His eyes were bloodshot. Tears wound down his cheeks. His lips trembled.</p>
<p>You were so lovely. So heartbreakingly ethereal. Your beauty drove him to madness.</p>
<p>The things he would give, would do, to have your beauty for his own. To have you for his own.</p>
<p>“Vil?” you whispered, piercing his heart once again.</p>
<p>He shook his head. “I’m going to tell you something I’ve been meaning to say for a very long time, potato.”</p>
<p>Your hand tightened on his and he swallowed heavily, searching for the words.</p>
<p>“You,” he started, voice trembling, “have always been the most beautiful creature I’ve had the blessing to lay my eyes on.”</p>
<p>And you always will be.</p>
<p>He cupped your cheek.</p>
<p>“And I have always loved… beauty.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Leona Kingscholar</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Of all people, why him?”</p>
<p>Why couldn’t it have been me?</p>
<p>Your gaze rose to the mirror, catching the muscular form of your dear friend in its reflection. His jade eyes glared back at you, his dark brow furrowed. Were you a coward for not wanting to respond? For not wanting, no- not being able to give him an answer? You didn’t want to see him. Didn’t want to acknowledge the hurt and pain shining in those forested depths</p>
<p>There was so much that had been left unsaid between the two of you that it threatened to drown you both.  </p>
<p>Swallowing down the lump in your throat, you stood and met his piercing gaze.  </p>
<p>Of course you did.</p>
<p>You’d always been like that. So stupidly brave. So idiotically willing to rise to his challenges. You’d never feared backing down from him even when he roared or swiped at you. Despite acting as a sweet little lamb, you’d never let him traipse all over you without a fight. He had loved that about you.  </p>
<p>Loved that about you, still.</p>
<p>Loved you so much he sometimes woke up in the night feeling like a wounded animal. Loved you so much he spent every waking moment wanting to plunge his claws into his own chest so that he could rip out that stupid fucking heart that refused to forget about you. He wanted to stop. Wanted to beg you to let him go- even though he knew his continuing to love you wasn’t your choice to make.  </p>
<p>It was his choice.</p>
<p>And over,</p>
<p>and over,</p>
<p>and over again,</p>
<p>he kept choosing to love you.  </p>
<p>Like some addled idiot. Some desperate fool or unflinching addict.  </p>
<p>He loved you.  </p>
<p>He’d forgotten how not to.  </p>
<p>Leona was second prince to the throne. He was a lion. He was an apex predator.  </p>
<p>You brought him to his knees.  </p>
<p>It stung to remember how he had begged his brother into rallying the Afterglow Savanna behind you. He had felt the awful tearing of his pride as he had asked his brother, as he had pleaded with him, to let the world know that their people would stand beside you as you married someone else. Even as it felt like his very chest would seize to rise, he had fought to make it known to all of the world that you were not entering into marriage with that fucking lizard as a mortal with no merit. You were infinite. You were divine. You were the most amazing creature in all the world- and you had a dowry. No human alive could provide more than the alliance of the Savannah. You had him and all he could provide at your disposal. At your side.  </p>
<p>You’d always have him.  </p>
<p>“I love him,” you whispered so simply. So matter of fact that he wanted to roar and snarl and-</p>
<p>Well, he loved you, but you weren’t marrying him. No, you had chosen someone else. And fuck did that hurt to acknowledge. To think about. To know even in the back of his mind in his sleep.  </p>
<p>You weren’t his.</p>
<p>You never had been.</p>
<p>Maybe at some point if he hadn’t been so lazy or stubborn or stupid he could have had you but now-</p>
<p>He wanted to lash out at you for ripping his heart in half. Wanted to fall to your feet and ask why it couldn’t have been him you had chosen. Wanted to beg you to pick him.</p>
<p>Please.  </p>
<p>Pick me.</p>
<p>What could he have done differently to get you to love him?  </p>
<p>Would he never be enough?</p>
<p>Leona grabbed your face, his palms on either cheek. He squeezed his eyes shut, but not before you could see a wet sheen on those leafy depths. With a ragged growl, the lion mushed his face to yours, foreheads and noses smashing together- his breath on those lips he had dreamed about kissing a hundred thousand times, but now knew he never would.  </p>
<p>He growled and it was a ragged, weeping sound torn from the depths of his chest. It sounded as if his heart was leaking between those clenched fangs.  </p>
<p>“In this whole fucking world, the only two things I’ve only ever truly wanted are you and your happiness.”</p>
<p>Leona dragged in a desperate, haggard breath. “Since you can’t give me one, please,” his voice broke like he’d never begged another person before, like his very body ached to do so, “please allow me the other.”</p>
<p>As he pulled away from you, it was impossible not to notice the tears flowing from his eyes. His thumb stroked your cheek and you realized you were also crying. His hands tightened around your face, like it was taking all of his willpower not to weld himself to you. After a painful moment, Leona finally let go and his hands dropped to his side.  </p>
<p>“From the bottom of my heart, I’m demanding you- be happy.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Malleus Draconia</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Thank you for your warm invitation.”</p>
<p>You gasped as the tall, horned fae knelt before you, swamped with emotion over such a gesture. Malleus bowed to no one. He was a king in the making, a man of birth so noble and prestigious that you hadn’t thought him capable of bending at the knee. Having him prostrate himself before you felt wrong. Your hands flit upon his back as you desperately asked him to stand, to tell him that this was too much. You were ignored as he grasped your small hand in his.</p>
<p>It was laughable, really, that you insisted he rise. You’d always brought him to his knees.</p>
<p>Raindrops dotted the fae’s form as thunder and lightning crashed outside. Soaked and morose, he was still a beauty of otherworldly renown.</p>
<p>“I apologize for the storm. I wish…” he paused and shook his head, scattering water as he cleared his throat, “I had hoped I could make the sun would shine for you today.” You made him forget how to control his emotions. He’d seen the dark clouds gather as he approached the venue. The first drop of bittersweet water had fallen upon his cheek, and then the storm had begun in earnest.</p>
<p>“It’s no problem,” you said with a worried smile, slowly accepting his hold on your hand. He willed himself to never forget that small warmth. That gentle voice and the sweet tilt of your lips.</p>
<p>He didn’t need to. He would never forget it. Could never forget it. No fae worth their salt could ever forget a love so bittersweet or a lover so radiant. To forget you would be like forgetting how to breathe. Like forgetting how to love altogether.</p>
<p>He could never forget you.</p>
<p>He had to at least try.</p>
<p>“I love rainstorms.”</p>
<p>How could you still rip his heart to pieces? He had thought you finished with it, but even now, you sunk your nails into him.</p>
<p>How could he give you up? You were so perfect. Your hand fit in his like it had been made to. You voice flowed into him like it was meant to be there. He had never felt broken until he’d seen you and known that he was finally whole.</p>
<p>He’d been asleep, not even knowing it, until you had said his name and woken him.</p>
<p>Or maybe, even now, he was dreaming. A sad, pathetic part of him hoped that maybe he was wandering through the shadows of some nightmare. That he was being haunted by a future not meant to be.</p>
<p>That he would wake up and it would be him you had chosen to embrace.To love for the rest of your days.</p>
<p>You who had chosen to love another mortal in the way that only mortals could love. Wholly and changing. Like how seasons changed and flowers bloomed. Like how one day fell into the next. He’d seen you look upon the golden sunlight of another and had watched you walk into that day. And he’d known what it would bring you.</p>
<p>He had offered to give you forever. He had offered to give you everything.</p>
<p>And now, he was to give you away.</p>
<p>Impossible.</p>
<p>Unfair.</p>
<p>Heartbreaking.</p>
<p>Mortals could be so cruel.</p>
<p>Malleus squeezed the small hand in his, as if by doing so he could convince you not to leave.</p>
<p>You were lost to him.</p>
<p>Lost to another.</p>
<p>Lost to time.</p>
<p>Lost to a place he could no go.</p>
<p>The words he wished he could have said to you before fizzled on his tongue. He wanted to beg you, to plead with you not to go. He could not follow you like this. He didn’t want to be alone again.</p>
<p>I have waited so long for you.</p>
<p>The prince had promised Lilia that he wouldn’t run off with you. Malleus had sworn that he wouldn’t steal you away, despite every screaming voice inside of him demanding he do so. There was too much at stake. Too much to lose. He had hitched the support of the Valley of Thorns to your marriage with that mortal of yours, as had the lion cub. A marriage that united three species, as many had always dreamed. A dream that had been endlessly deferred until now.</p>
<p>But he had only ever dreamed of loving you.</p>
<p>Of having you to love- to hold- to be his.</p>
<p>He hadn’t known much of personal desire until he had met you. Hadn’t known much of temptation until you’d smiled at him. Malleus had always been so good, so perfectly molded to be successor to the throne. And now, even without his marriage or effort, the three dominant species of wonderland were now to be united. The happiness of his people abounded even as the dark pit in his chest gaped and bled. This union between two mortals was to bring happiness to the whole of the realm.</p>
<p>The selfish heart of his that you had awoken asked: what about him?</p>
<p>Didn’t he deserve his scrap of happiness?</p>
<p>You’d made a beast of him. Made a monster of a man. Showed him all the beauty the world could offer him and then ripped it away. Often, he wished he had not met you that night. If only he had turned around. If only he had not gone out.</p>
<p>If only he could have made you love him back.</p>
<p>He could offer you eternity. He could offer you riches beyond compare and unimaginable power. He’d set the world aflame for you if you so much as asked.</p>
<p>What could that mortal offer you that he couldn’t?</p>
<p>How was he not enough?</p>
<p>You had taken his still heart in your hands and breathed it back to life. Had cradled it to your breast until it learned how to beat. Had ripped it whole from his chest and still, it hadn’t been enough for you. He couldn’t fault you completely. You didn’t understand the love of a fae. Didn’t comprehend the binding and unchanging way his people loved. Without even knowing it was of value, you had snuck away in the dark with the one thing he would never be able to replace. You had stolen everything.</p>
<p>You had stolen his heart.</p>
<p>“I want to give it back,” you whispered and he realized he had spoken aloud.</p>
<p>“I had only one heart to give. There is no returning it,” he murmured, his lips grazing the back of your hand as you felt the bitter sting of tears on your skin. He wished for you to think of them as merely raindrops. A by-product of the storm outside. Malleus’s hand clenched around yours as he fought the urge to take you away. To disappear with you. To hole you up in some tower somewhere so he wouldn’t have to lose you. You had always made him a ravenous, hungering beast.</p>
<p>It was only fitting you were getting to marry your little mortal prince.</p>
<p>As a child, he had not known why his grandmother had guarded her little princess so zealously. He knew now of the maddening tortures of adoration and infatuation. Of desire.</p>
<p>Of unrequited love.</p>
<p>Malleus shook his head and pressed your warm hand to his cheek. He wished he had realized his feelings sooner. Wished he had been less complacent. Wished he had put more thought into the unbearable speed with which small mortals lived.</p>
<p>Those mournful emerald eyes looked up into yours and you watched them spill over once last time before clenching closed as he pressed one final, desperate kiss to your knuckle. His lips grazed the jewelled engagement band already there and he wanted to weep at the cruelty of it all. You should have been his.</p>
<p>He was yours, regardless.</p>
<p>Would always be yours.</p>
<p>“If you cannot give me your heart, I ask of you to keep mine safe. Keep mine warm. Sun it with your smile. Water it with your laughter.”</p>
<p>He rose to his feet and cupped your face in his hands. Bending over, he placed a chaste kiss to the velvet crown of your head and fought the need to tear you away from this place.</p>
<p>“I gift you with fortune forever in your future.”</p>
<p>His lips pressed to your forehead as teardrops fell upon you like rain.</p>
<p>“I gift you with happiness every moment of your life.”</p>
<p>His lips pressed to your eyelids. The pair of you pretended it was not his voice that had cracked, but the thunder outside.</p>
<p>“I gift you with undying love for the rest of your days.”</p>
<p>His lips brushed your nose and you felt the flutter of his inky lashes upon your skin and Malleus pressed his forehead to yours- as if by doing so you would know every one of his tortured thoughts. His lips crashed against your forehead again and again. A hundred thousand kisses he wished he could give you in a world where you had chosen him.</p>
<p>“I bless you, my dear. I gift you with everything I and the world have to offer.”</p>
<p>All that I am is yours. Will always be.</p>
<p>Yours.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I post to my Tumblr (wickedfaerytale) first and only post here if I can remember to. Sorry, I'm an AO3 noob.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>